The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies or credit-bearing, career-oriented internships abroad.

The program aims to encourage students to choose non-traditional study and intern destinations, especially those outside of Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The Gilman Scholarship Program aims to support students who have been traditionally under-represented in education abroad, including but not limited to, students with high financial need, community college students, students in underrepresented fields such as the sciences and engineering, students with diverse ethnic backgrounds, and students with disabilities. The program seeks to assist students from a diverse range of public and private institutions from all 50 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico.

Award recipients are chosen by a competitive selection process and must use the award to defray eligible study or intern abroad costs. These costs include program tuition, room and board, books, local transportation, insurance and international airfare.

Students who apply for and receive the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study abroad are then eligible to receive a Critical Need Language Award from the Gilman Scholarship Program of $8,000. Applicants who are studying a critical need language while abroad in a country in which the language is predominantly spoken will automatically be considered for the Critical Need Language Award. Critical languages include: Arabic, Chinese, Bahasa Indonesia, Japanese, Turkic, Persian, Indic, Korea, Russian and Swahili.

The program is open to all U.S. citizen undergraduates, in good academic standing, who meet the criteria listed below:
- The applicant must be receiving a Federal Pell Grant or provide proof that he/she will be receiving a Pell Grant at the time of application or during the term of his/her study abroad program or internship.
- The applicant is applying to or has been accepted into a study abroad program or internship eligible for credit by the student's accredited institution of higher education in the US
- The applicant is studying or interning abroad for at least four weeks in one country. Programs going to more than one country are eligible if the student will be in one country for at least four consecutive weeks.
- The applicant is studying or interning abroad in any country except Cuba or a country on the US Department of State's current Travel Warning list.